I'm in the hunt for a new 9' 5 wt fly rod for the season. I'm looking to spend around $225-275. Two rods that have caught my eye so far are the redington torrent and TFO BVK. The thing that interests me about the TFO is the warranty, but its kind of vague on what it covers. I've tried to search the web, but was unable to find anything. Is their warranty like Orvis'? If a rod breaks from accidentally shutting it in a door or from being stepped on will they replace it?

Most of the brand name rod companies today feature overly generous warranties...and don't think for a moment you are not paying for them. Rod prices would be some 20+% lower if they featured a "materials and workmanship" warranty rather than "unconditional". But this anti-responsibility feature is here to stay or the rod maker can not compete. I would like to know the % rate of breakage a rod model experiences in concert with the warranty terms. Good luck getting that data from any company. Fly rods are inherently fragile as they are thin walled tubular structures that are compressing and deforming as they flex. It is a testimony to ingenuity as to how tough rods are in fishing use but are obviously no match for jamming, stabbing, pinching, crushing maneuvers. I remain confused why rod companies should be responsible for our privilege of enjoying ceiling fans, self-shutting screen doors and rear hatches on our fish-mobiles.

I have broken two TFO rods....both were positively due to my clumsiness....TFO replaced one completely, and replaced a rod section for the second, with turn around times in 5 and 7 days. No questions asked.

Yep, what these guys said. I broke an 8wt BVK twice in two months last year. Sent them in and had it back within a week both times. I also broke a 6 wt BVK, and it was also replaced with a brand new rod. Two of these incidents were completely my fault and they never even asked. One of the best warranties in the business, IMO.

It seems that there is a lot of breakage among TFO's, BVK in particular. We have two of them, an 8-weight that has traveled to bonefishing, caught bonefish and has not broken (yet) and a #6 that has seen plenty of rugged drift boat banging around and also is still in 4-pieces. I would much rather pay their actual value of $175 or so and throw them away if I step on them in the boat and send them in for warranty only if they broke while fighting a fish. I throw out my empty single malt bottles too instead of bringing them in for refilling.